Humanity
by NineTailedFoxDemoness
Summary: To be human...what is it really? Can you look like a human by not be one? Could you look like a monster and still be one? DonOC


**Humanity**

**Donatello of TMNT**

**Short Story**

This was a request from my friend, Flamedhaven, on Quizilla.

_**Never would one expect to follow a road of darkness, and end up in the light. The same as a nocturnal creature not expecting to see the glory of the sun.**_

The mission was simple: Find the turtles, capture them, and bring them back to the base. The mission wasn't: Find the turtles, get your butt kicked by them, and then get captured by them.

Brandi was certain that the Shredder was now pacing back and forth in his office, wondering how to recapture his most useful ninja or how to make the current situation work to his advantage. But she also knew that he was angry. His plan had failed. His plan to finally defeat the turtles was a complete failure (as so was his other plans). Brandi shuttered at the thought of what punishment she would receive when she was recaptured. Probably a thousand whippings.

But she knew that she deserved that punishment. It was, after all, her fault that the G-F Unit failed. She was the captain; she should've analyzed the situation better and thought of back-up plans. She was ignorant and careless. Because of her, the mission failed and now she was stuck in the turtles' lair.

Brandi looked at her familiar, yet unfamiliar surroundings. She was stuck in a room, in a glass cage with little air holes at the top. Outside the cage, the room was filled with computers with different-colored lights that flashed on their keyboards. She tried to figure out whose room it was. Obviously he had to be the smart turtle. Brandi tried to search her memories for his name.

The door opened. Brandi looked over at the turtle. She fought the urge not to scream. She couldn't scream; that's what Shredder had told her. "Never scream. Look fearless and confident." But every time she saw the turtles in their mutated forms, she wanted to scream. Never had she seen something so ugly, strange, and alien.

It was the purple one, carrying a tray of food. She figured he must be the smart one. This was his room.

"So you finally wake up. I was worried that maybe you went into a coma," he said casually, like he was some old friend.

She glowered at him. His words, kind and soft, sounded evil to her ears. "Don't try to soften me with fake words."

He ignored her comment as he pressed a button it made a sound like a lock unlocking. The cage door opened and he walked in. Then he placed the tray before her and walked away, pushing the button again, the lock locked. Brandi looked at the food hesitantly. Never had she ever been given anything for free. Everything she had been given she had to work for or share with someone else. It felt wrong to be fed by your enemy. It felt even more wrong to take something free that you never deserved. Brandi made a mental note to pay this turtle back one day.

"We didn't poison it, if that's what you're thinking," the turtle said. "Eat up. Then you need to rest. Those wounds Raph inflicted on you aren't serious, but you sprained your ankle a bit, so you'll have to stay off it for a while."

His words, again kind and soft, sounded a little less evil to her ears. But her suspicions didn't disappear. "Why are you being nice to me? Aren't we enemies?"

"I don't know how you guys do it back at the Foot, but we treat our enemies with fairness and don't intend on getting blood stains on our hands." He turned to his computer and began typing rapidly.

Brandi said no more and ate her food (cold pizza). She thought of his words for a bit, but knew that she shouldn't. They would mess up her mind and maybe make her betray the Shredder. So she ignored them, blocking them from her mind, and thought of a plan to get out of her cage and go back to the Foot.

_**Memories of yesterday frighten many with the past. But it is memories of the future that really make us worry.**_

The alley was dark. The only light was a streetlamp at the end of it.

She was crying under that light, letting the whole world and whoever would listen to her know that she was hurt. A shadow covered her for a moment. She looked up at the man.

What do you want most of all?

I don't know.

Do you want a father? A mother?

Yes.

Then I'll be your new father.

Really?

Yes. But on one condition.

What condition?

Be my tool. I'll train you to become a great ninja. A ninja that will do whatever I want whenever I want. When I ask you to jump, you ask how high. Got it?

Yes, Daddy.

That's a good girl. Come now. We need to get you out of those rags.

She followed her new father without question. After all, when you're small, your parents are everything.

_**Unlimited compassion and love is hard to understand. Sometimes the one giving the love and compassion is more confused than the one receiving.**_

"How is she doing?" Splinter asked the next morning. He looked his son over. No cuts, scratches, or bruises. That was good.

"She's got minor wounds and a sprained ankle," Donatello answered. He took another tray of food and was ready to head back to his room to feed the girl.

"I don't get it. Why're we helping out our enemy?" Raphael asked as Donatello disappeared into his room. "Am I the only one who remembers that she tried to _kill_ us last night?"

"We must extend a hand of compassion to our enemies," Splinter said, his voice wise. He drank his tea.

"When they didn't-"

"The point is that she's injured. She can't hurt us with a sprained ankle, and we made sure to take away all communication devices and weapons away from her. There's nothing to worry about," Leo said.

"YES! I just beat level 14!"

_**Treasures, like everything else that is valuable, are sometimes found in the most unlikely places.**_

He was being kind to her again. It confused her still. Even after what he had said last night. It was hard to believe that a thing like him existed. A thing who was kind enough to extend a helping hand to his enemies, even if that move would cause his demise. She didn't understand why a supposedly coldhearted, bloodthirsty mutant would put himself/herself in a situation where they could end up dead. Why?

"You don't like cold pizza?" he asked when he saw that she wasn't eating.

Brandi didn't answer.

"Sorry. It's the only thing we have at the moment."

He sounded like he was his caretaker. She hated his tone, so kind and nice to her, and she didn't even deserve it. And to think that she had tried to kill him. To think that she had wanted to scream when she saw him and his brothers. She could feel the guilt weigh down on her soul.

She wanted to thank him and his brothers for being nice to her. She didn't want to kill them. She never had. But she knew that they would regret taking her in. In the end, she would have to side with her father. There her loyalties would forever lie.

She wasn't good with nice words. They weren't her style. She was used to being sarcastic. It was the only way to not sound weak. At the moment, she felt weak, and nothing else.

"Why'd you save me?" Guilt was clear in her tone.

"Because I hate bloodshed."

He hated to kill others. So did she, although she had done it numerous times.

"And because we would've had an unfair advantage against you. Four to one hardly seems fair."

He was fair. So was she.

"Splinter told us to."

He listened to his father well. So did she.

It surprised Brandi how much they had in common. She would never have thought that a mutant turtle out of all things would have so much in common with her. It made her feel like a freak. It made her feel less lonely.

Silence filled it. She just stared at the place while he was working in his invention. Curiosity bubbled in her mind and made her want to ask questions just to know, to kill time, and to unplug the earplugs on her ears. Finally the silence got too loud for her. She had to stop it with something calm.

"What're you doing?"

"Rebuilding our car," was his simple answer. "I'm connecting the..." Everything else he said was a blur of long words that weren't in her vocabulary. "You haven't a clue."

Verifying his statement, Brandi nodded.

He just sighed, and continued to build the car. Brandi just watched like a child. She could do nothing else at the moment anyway. But the loud silence soon returned. She hated that silence. She hated it. She wanted to stab it until it died. But the only way to do that was to make conversation, something she preferred not to do. The stillness was really annoying her though.

"My name is Brandi," she blurted out. She had no idea why she had done so.

The turtle seemed surprise for a moment. Then, realizing what the girl was trying to do, he went along. "Donatello."

"Seems like you're the smart one of the group." She surveyed the computers again. "Everything was built by you?"

Donatello flushed a bit. It contrasted with his green skin. Brandi had never seen someone so alien act so human. More human than she or anyone else she knew. She felt a little pity for herself and her comrades (if you can call them that).

"Yeah. I did. It took me two weeks to build the car. Now it's going to take me another two weeks to rebuild it." He sighed tiredly at the end.

"Sorry," she said quietly. She hoped that he hadn't heard.

"It's okay. I'll just add some more features to it this time around."

He forgave her so quickly that it startled her. Usually if she had done something wrong, the Shredder would punish her quickly for it, taking no excuses or explanations. That's why she tried to stay on his good side. It was harder, but less painful on her part. She didn't think that there were people in the world who forgave their debtors that easily (or in this case a mutant).

"Thank you. I'll make this up to you somehow. I might be the captain of the G-F unit, but I'm not a freeloader."

Donatello just smiled at her. To many, it would've been strange and frightening to see a mutant smile at them. But to Brandi, that smile felt welcoming. "G-F unit?" he asked with curiosity.

"Girl Foot."

Together, he and she laughed.

_**They say that the observers can see the chess game better than the players. But if they're blind and ignorant, how can they observe?**_

"Is her ankle healed?" Leo asked his brother (the next week) as they watched Mikey get chased by Raph. It was a daily occurrence that never bothered them. But what did bother them was the girl they both knew was sitting in Don's room.

"Yeah," Don answered. "She can't run, but she can walk."

"When she can run, we'll let her run back to the Foot." He sighed as he knew that he would have to break up the fight. He walked toward the scene of Raph getting ready to pound Mikey into a pulp.

Don walked back to his room, where he spent most of his time nowadays. Before, it used to be a lonely place where he could find peace and solitude from all the craziness that came with responsibility. Now, it was where he could find a small friend. He enjoyed her company. But every time they talked, one question would always pop up: _"Why are you being so nice to me?"_ Obviously, she had never been shown compassion before him.

He was exultant that he changed that.

"What's with the racket outside?" Brandi asked when Don entered the room.

"Raph and Mikey are at it again." Don stopped before her glass barrier to look at her with a smile. She seemed to like it when he smiled. "Leo says that when you can run, we'll send you back to the Foot."

She shuttered at a horrifying image. Don wasn't exactly sure what it was, but he had a guess. Most of the time, his guesses were right. He hoped that this time he was wrong though. The image that came to his mind was too horrendous to accept.

"Don't worry. I won't tell them anything. I'll just say that I was kept locked up in a dark room all day," Brandi replied earnestly. "That'll be my way of repaying you and your family."

"It's good to know that the G-F unit is better than the others," Don replied lightheartedly. Then he turned to his current project.

"Why do you spend your time working so much?" she asked, breaking the silence. Don figured that she didn't like silence.

"Because I like it. It's fun. You should try it sometime." Don held up a screwdriver with a smile.

"I think I'll pass that offer."

"Alright, if you insist." Don returned to doing his work again. But he stopped, his mind racing with thoughts. He turned to Brandi again, and noticed that she was staring at his face with a blank expression. How long had she been staring at him? "So...uh...Brandi, what's your favorite color?"

She blinked, surprised at his question. "I don't have one. Colors are just colors."

"Umm..." he was nervous for a bit "...what's your favorite-?"

"I don't have favorites," Brandi replied. Her eyes turned to the ceiling. "I never had any favorites. Father didn't allow it."

She was angry; it was obvious in her tone, but not her face. Her face was blank except for her eyes, which narrowed at a memory only she remembered. (Don almost wished he could see what she was seeing.) Then her eyes darted to the corner of the room. Don looked at it, and saw that it was his Bo staff.

"You fight with the staff?" she asked.

Don nodded.

"I've always wanted to learn." She turned back to him. "Will you teach me?"

Don couldn't help but say, "Sure."

Brandi smiled at him, an actual smile. "Thanks, Don. Or should I call you sensei from now on?"

He thought about it. "Don-sensei. That has a nice ring to it."

"Don-sensei then it is." Her eyes darted from left to right, focused on the floor. Then she looked up at his eyes and noticed the unreadable mutant look on them. The mutant look looked human, so human that she was taken back. "So, when can we start?"

"Tomorrow." His smile was so warm that Brandi could've sworn she felt the sun touch her in that dark and cold room.

_**What makes a human a human? Why is a shelled reptile not human? Just because it does not speak or act as we do does not mean it is not human. We only call it a turtle because we don't want to mix with its species. Humans are proud like that.**_

For the pass few days, Don had been training Brandi in secret. He never told the others, but he did tell Master Splinter and asked if he would okay his decision. Splinter, without much surprise, surprisingly said yes. "I am certain that you will teach her more than just using the Bo staff, Donatello." He knew what Splinter wanted him to teach Brandi, but he wasn't sure if he could do that.

"I think that's enough for today," Don said when he noticed Brandi's heavy panting. She stood up from her crouching position, and gave the Bo staff back to him. "You're progressing faster than I thought. I'm impressed."

Brandi smiled at the comment. It looked like the smile of a child being rewarded with candy for a good deed or achievement. He smiled back. That, for some reason, made her blush.

"That's because I have a great teacher," she replied.

Don blushed and lifted an arm to scratch the back of his head. "I'm not that great."

"I know. It's just that I like seeing you blush. It makes you look a little more..." she trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence.

"But it hardly seems fair. I've never seen you blush before."

"That's because I don't blush easily. I've been taught in the art of being deadpanned," she replied calmly. "It works in battle, especially if you don't want your opponent to know you're hurt."

"You do have a point there." Then he thought back to something Brandi had said before. Suddenly he realized it. He turned back to Brandi, ready to yell and joke with her, but Brandi was already inside her glass barrier, the door closed but unlocked, asleep on the bed.

Don smiled at her sleeping form. He yawned, but he didn't go to sleep. He went back to his project and began working. Yes he had to train Brandi, but he also had to finish rebuilding the car as soon as possible too. His brothers would need it in cases of emergency.

Emergency meant the Foot and Shredder. It also meant Brandi.

_**Even while showing compassion, one must be aware of who they are showing compassion to. It is not wise to show limitless compassion in the midst of danger. Many would call that plain foolishness.**_

He was being too kind to her. It scared her, but brought her relief at the same time. She didn't want it, but it was what she had desired all along. She didn't like it, but she liked it. Her feelings were overwhelming her, crushing her with an invisible force. Since this was new to her, the feelings were still fresh, making them harder to bear. She liked the pain that the new feelings brought her though. It felt very enlightening.

He was willing to teach her how to fight with the Bo staff, his chosen weapon. Why? Didn't he know that she could use his teachings against him? If he did, then he probably wasn't teaching her all that she knew. Thinking of this, Brandi almost felt like she was being betrayed. But she knew that Don was teaching her all he knew. She could feel it in his eyes. Everything could be seen through his eyes.

She wondered if everything she thought, she felt, could be seen through her eyes too. The thought scared her. She always thought she was unreadable, but then here comes a guy who is slowly making her feel safe and secure. That's what made her feel like she could confess to him everything.

It frightened her.

She couldn't get too close. She couldn't let him get too close either. The Shredder taught her long ago that there were three things you could not do as a Foot ninja.

"If you let someone get too close, you'll have to kill that someone."  
"If you let yourself get too close to someone, you'll have to kill that someone. "  
"If you don't want to feel guilty, I suggest you don't get close to anyone."

Brandi knew that the Shredder was right. To avoid pain, to avoid that guilty feeling she detested, she would have to push Don away. She would have to distance herself. She would build a wall, and make sure that it was made of unbreakable steel so that he or she couldn't break it. When he tried to break it, she would have to reinforce it.

She had to build that wall now. She had to distance herself. Now.

Brandi looked at her healed ankle. Don had told her that she could walk, but she wasn't able to run yet. She worried that if she did run, she would end up spraining it again and then coming back to the lair. Considering this, she was hesitant to leave.

No. She couldn't let this one ankle stop her. If she did let it stop her, then she would regret it for the rest of her life. Either way, if she stayed or ran away, she would end up regretting something. She had to choose. What would she end up regretting the most? That was a hard one.

Her body thought for her. It got up as if programmed to, and walked to the door. Her arm opened the glass door easily. She walked out of the room, not saying goodbye or looking back at her sensei and first friend. She waited until she was out into the sewers that she began to run. She ran as fast as she could until she reached the right ladder. She climbed up and exited into civilization. She ran even more to get to headquarters.

Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest by the time she reached headquarters. Her ankle was throbbing slightly with pain, but she ignored it. She looked around, and saw that the members of the G-F Unit were all alright. She smiled, happy to know that her ninjas weren't injured or punished by the Shredder. Forgetting about everything for a while, Brandi fell asleep in her room, her empty room with a squeaky queen-size bed and her sword hanging on the wall.

Her dream remained blank and image-less throughout the whole night.

_**The things that bound a person are the things that that person most fears. Either of losing that thing or unfulfilling it.**_

Don awoke with a certain missing feeling. It was as if something had ran away from him, like a dog running away from its owner. He wondered what had run away. He yawned, stretched, and turned to the glass barrier. It took him a while to realize it.

Brandi was gone.

He immediately panicked. His first thought should've been along the lines of fear of another attack. Rather, his first thought was of Brandi's safety. _Where is she? Is she okay?_

Don looked around frantically. First he checked his room, and then the other rooms. Luckily for him, no one was awake. Luckily, he did not smell the scent of blood. His nose was sensitive to blood, more than his other brothers were. He cursed himself lightly at the end of his fruitless search about not placing a tracking device on her before. He cursed himself even more when his brother Leo woke up.

Trouble was certain and unambiguous.

"Hey, Don. What're you doing up so early?" Leo took a pan out of the cabinet.

"I just woke up early. That's all," Don said calmly. Then he noticed what his older brother was doing. "What're you doing Leo?"

"Making breakfast."

"You probably shouldn't. Remember the last time you tried that?"

Leo reminisced. Last time he tried to cook, he had caused egg yolks and whites to go flying around the kitchen. The kitchen was barely recognizable. But the moment was memorable. Leo was calm as the small memory played in his mind.

With a small sigh, Leo put the pan back.

"Fine. I won't." A moment of silence enveloped the two brothers. Even though they were different from age (only by a few seconds) they were closer than the others. "So, how's the girl doing?"

Don hated being asked this question everyday. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk about Brandi. (He could do that all day and not even realize it.) It was the questionable look that Leo and Splinter and everyone else gave him. It made him edgy. He hated the feeling of uncertainty. In science you couldn't and shouldn't be uncertain. You had to be right. One false move and it could cause a chain of events that resulted in pandemonium. But this wasn't science they were talking about. It was a girl.

"She's doing good. She's getting better. Soon she can go back." He had hated the thought of Brandi going back to the Foot. What they would do to punish her was what frightened him the most. He would never admit this to her, but he worried about her past and her future often. Like a protective father or a brother. Or perhaps...

No. He knew that it was impossible to be in love with her. For one thing, they could not physically get intimate with each other. It was impossible after all. He was a turtle. He had a form different from those of a human man or boy. No matter how human he may act or think, he was still just a mutated turtle. But he couldn't help the human feelings he got when he looked at her and saw her as a woman.

She was a human. He was a turtle. Yet...she made him feel human.

Her warm human skin. How would it feel on his cold, reptile skin? Her hands, small and fragile. How would it feel in his large, three-fingered, rough ones? Her heart, so delicate that he was afraid to get too close. How would it feel if he embraced it and protected it from breaking in two?

It was clear and obvious. Don wanted to protect her with all his twisted being. He wanted to hold her and make sure that she never ran away. He wanted her to stay with him always, no matter how selfish he sounded. He wanted what he couldn't. He wanted Brandi. He wanted love, an emotion supposedly not natural to his kind.

He loved her...

_**Everyone is a greedy being. They want what they can't have. They will try their best to obtain it. If they're best is not good enough, they will try again next time.**_

"I bet you probably enjoyed yourself," the lieutenant of the G-F unit said sourly to Brandi the next morning. Her name was Mono. "Thing" in Japanese. It matched her use perfectly.

"While you were enjoying your stay at the turtles' lair, we were devising a plan to get them back."

She would have to go back to that lair. Just as the last time, she was the enemy. But at that time she was willing to be the enemy. This time, she refused to be the enemy. She knew that if she refused to go, the Foot would become suspicious and so would Shredder, her father and the one she owe her life to. They would accuse her of being a traitor and loving the enemy. But if she did go, she would die for certain, either by one of the turtles or her own blade.

Her mouth had a mind of its own. It spoke without her consent. In fact, her entire body seemed to be acting without her mind. If she had wanted, she could just let her body control itself while she was thinking of nothing and feeling nothing.

"What's the plan?"

"Have you established any friendship with the turtles?" Mono asked, a look of uncertainty and suspicion in her voice and her eyes.

"Yes. I pretended to like one of them. I think he's in love with me." Her tone sounded so cruel. She hated herself.

Mono smiled that sinister smile. "Good. That's a good thing. We'll need that."

Then she explained the plan.

Brandi's heart because to feel the burden of guilt. It weighed down on her soul, making her feel so low. Just when she thought she could get as low as she could get, the weight adds up and she falls lower. She was as low as the ground, and even lower than that.

"And that's the plan. So, whatcha say we get it over with tomorrow?"

Brandi nodded unwillingly.

"We'll be sure to get them this time. Those turtles won't know what hit them. By the way, which turtle is in love with you again?"

"Donatello."

"Which?"

"The purple one."

Mono only smiled more evilly. "This should be interesting then."

Interesting it would be indeed.

_**New feelings are always the hardest to understand. It takes a while, but eventually, you'll understand.**_

The day passed with much chaos. The rest of the G-F unit demanded to know of their leader's experience with the turtles. They wanted to know all they could about them, so that next time they would be more successful. However, their leader provided little to no information about the turtles, much to their displeasure.

"What were they like? Were they blood-thirsty like the Shredder says?"

"I don't know. I was confined in a dark room. The only one who came in and saw me was the purple turtle." This was the truth. Part of it.

"Then he must have been the tame one," another girl concluded.

"Or perhaps he was in lust."

"You and your perverted-ness."

"That's impossible anyway. Even if he was, he would have no way of getting into bed with our captain."

Brandi thought about it, and wondered if it was twisted that she often wondered what cold, reptile skin would feel like on her cold-blooded, human ones. What if she had kissed him? Would such a thing as a kiss be possible? His were bigger than hers. It was a eccentric and twisted thought.

Getting into bed. In other words: sex. Brandi wanted to discard the thought, but it seemed to be a boomerang, always coming back to her eventually. The thought was even more twisted than her desire to kiss the mutated reptile. But they were right. It was impossible to have sex with him. They could be physically and intimately close, but they could never complete the mating ritual. That was obviously true.

Yet...

She wondered and wondered about the topic, and wondered why she was wondering. Why was she bothering herself with these feelings anyway? When she made the choice to run back to the Foot, she made a choice to discard feelings like these that would make her feel guilty. These feelings of twisted lust was making her feel guilty. If she did kill him (directly or indirectly), she would never find out how mutated hands felt on human ones. She would never find out if a kiss between them was possible. She would never find out if mutated children were possible to create.

As the sun descended downward, signaling the end of the day, Brandi began to question her choice last night. Maybe she should've stayed, and found out the answers to her questions. Then she would run away. No. That would've made her feel like a feeble daughter who kissed the forbidden boy and ran away. Right now, the choice she had made was the best choice.

Still, she couldn't help feeling like she should run back to the turtles' lair. She wanted to get her answers. She wanted to be close to Don, the purple turtle who showed her compassion and kindness. She wanted to thank him somehow. Perhaps by showing him that his compassion had taught her something.

She cried in her room alone that night. The realization hit her like a big boulder. Her feelings were finally understood, and Brandi could do nothing but cry. She didn't have the power to stop her feelings, she didn't have the power to stop the future.

She loved Donatello. She loved him.

And she would have to kill him.

_**Regret is the most sorrowful feeling. The saddest thing about it is the feeling of helplessness, knowing that there is nothing you can do.**_

That morning, Don woke up early again. He looked at the empty glass barrier, and wished that he could see her smiling face. Her obviously being Brandi.

Ever since yesterday when he finally understood his feelings, he had this strange feeling of loneliness too. The only who could cure it was Brandi. Seeing her would bring him relief from worrying. Then he could confess.

In those dramas on T.V., if there was a male who was a timid person, he would keep his feelings closed tight around a clench fist. He would let the female lead do as she pleased with the other men. She would flirt without knowing that it hurt him, and it would tear him to ribbons. She would smile and talk about some other guy to him, and it would shake his fragile world. She would say, "I love you," to another guy, and that would be the last straw.

Don didn't want to be that male character. He didn't want to wait to tell Brandi his feelings. Out of all the turtles', he was the boldest emotionally. He only hoped that boldness would help him. If she rejected him, he wasn't sure what he would do. In fact, he wasn't sure if he would get the chance to tell her at all.

Don did his morning routine, and prepared to scrabble some eggs for his other brothers. Compared to Mikey and Raph, Don's cooking wasn't all that great. But compared to Leo's, his would have won a blue ribbon. Despite Leo's great ninjutsu and instincts, Leo could never cook a meal to save his life.

The rest of the day was like any other day. Various fights, along with some quiet moments, and of course pizza at the end of the day. Honestly, he preferred a salad in his own room. But he didn't mind pizza now and then with the others (even when Mikey starts a food fight with Raph).

He was glad to go back into his room. He could finally have a little piece and quiet. He could finally go back to trying to track Brandi. He had figured this morning that he needed to track her first and know where she was before he could tell her his feelings. But it would be difficult. Tracking her and telling her his feelings.

He turned on his computer, and the screen didn't come up. He waited, wondering if there was glitch in the system. But that couldn't be. He waited.

A voice, low, raspy and threatening, spoke to him from the blank screen. "Meet us in the old warehouse on 19th Street, or your little girlfriend gets it."

Immediately, he took off, running as fast as he could to 19th Street.

_Brandi._ That was the name that went through his head. _Brandi._

_**When you begin to become overprotective of someone, that either means you are just beginning to care or you care too much.**_

"Stage one status?" Mono asked, but it sounded like a statement.

"Stage one: success. Tech Geek got the audio. He is coming right now," a vaguely distorted voice said through the talkie-walkie. There was no image of the owner, but it was clear that she was grinning evilly.

"Got it."

Mono turned back to Brandi, who was tied to a chair in the center of the warehouse. Her eyes were empty, which was what they were trained to be. Each and every member of the G-F Unit was forced to learn how to hide emotions from the enemy and from each other as well. Out of all of them, Brandi was the most successful. Even now Mono did not know what the Captain thought of.

No one had ever known of what ran through the Captain's head. No one except the Shredder, and he rarely talked with anyone but the Captain. Mono also suspected one other person who knew the Captain's thoughts.

"We have a visual on the target. He's heading toward the warehouse, and quickly."

"Got it."

Mono quickly shoved her thoughts away and let her survivor instincts take over her body. She would have to worry about the Captain later. Now, the thing that mattered was the mission.

If it succeeded, the turtles would finally be annihilated.

_**It's clear that an evil plan will fail and a plan for good will succeed. But what if the good is the evil and the evil is the good? What happens then?**_

Brandi didn't know what to do. She was the Captain, yet she was letting the co-Captain take over. She couldn't take control because she was afraid to, so she agreed to let Mono organize the mission. It was clear that under her control, the mission would be a success. She wasn't in love like Brandi was. She wouldn't hesitating to destroy the turtles.

"We have a visual on the target. He's heading toward the warehouse, and quickly," the distorted, faint voice said. Brandi knew what was coming next.

The doors were kicked open. She lifted her head a little and released her fear into her eyes and every muscle on her face. _Please. Don't let it be-_

"Brandi!"

"Sorry, turtle, but you fell for our trap." Mono's voice was dripping with blood. Her killer instincts had taken over.

The next moment, G-F ninjas surrounded Don, all with their swords at his throat, not allowing him to move. Despite this, his eyes were focused on Brandi. He was only concerned about Brandi. Only she.

_No. Run. Save yourself. Run!_ It was no use. No matter what Brandi thought, Don obviously didn't get it. In his mind, he was only concerned about Brandi. If he were in danger at this very instant, he wouldn't have known. And he most certainly was in danger at that instant.

"Let her go! She's-"

"A traitor." Mono's evil smirk came back. It was so evil that you wouldn't even know she was acting. "She was captured, and didn't return until we all got punished. And worse, she fell into the enemy's arms of compassion and love. She got brainwashed by you and your so-called love. She even fell in love with you."

"It was the Shredder who's-" He paused as a sudden realization came to him.

Brandi's eyes widened with fear. She had hoped that she had kept her emotions hidden well. She was sure that no one could tell what she was feeling. She was sure, questionably sure, that her love would be kept a secret. And to think that Mono, Mono who was as dumb as a fish, found out.

"You heard me right," Mono continued. "She's in _love_ with you, turtle boy. So what are you going to do now? Reject her, or save her?" She brought out a dagger and placed it on Brandi's neck, where her shoulder and neck connected. "How can you possibly save her?"

"Cowabanga!" The shattering of windows surprised everyone in the room. They turned toward the noise, and found the other three turtles.

"Hey, these are a bunch of girls. We can't fight girls," Mikey said, looking around at the dudettes wearing Foot ninja masks and outfits.

"Then we'll gladly fight you," one said, and kicked him down.

"I don't care if you guys are girls. I'm not gonna let my butt get kicked by some girl!" Raph said, cracking his knuckles. He quickly ran and punched another girl.

A big fight broke out. Everyone was wrapped up in it. Even the swordswomen who had their swords at Don's neck left to fight the other turtles. He took this opportunity to quickly grab Brandi. They made it safely through the mass of fists, kicks, and the occasional blade and various weapons. Once outside the warehouse, Don ran as fast as he could to someplace else, a safe someplace else.

"Okay. I think we're safe," Don said when they reached an abandoned alley that was clean and had no graffiti on its walls. He placed the quiet Brandi down, and watched as she was shaking. Shaking so hard that he was afraid she would break in two. So he held her shaking shoulders, and that eased her a little bit. But not by much. "Brandi, you're okay now. You shouldn't be scared. I'm here to protect you." His words, he hoped, soothed her.

She lifted her head to face him. She looked him in the eye, and wouldn't break the contact. Her left hand reached into her pocket...

And pulled out a gun.

Immediately, Don backed away.

_Run. Run! RUN!_ she wanted to scream. But all that came out of her voice was an evil laugh.

"You actually thought that I loved you? You're supposed to be the smart one, Don. But you fell into our trap like a fly to a spider web. You're a fool." She made her voice sound evil, as evil as it could. As long as Don would run away. Yet, he was standing right there, despite the evil in her eyes and the gun being pointed at him.

"Brandi..." His voice sounded like his heart was breaking. It probably was.

"I could never love you." Her voice was cracking now. The tears, there was no way to stop them. Her thoughts, only feelings put into words, ran through her mind in slow-motion, allowing her to feel each one clearly.

"A thing like you?" _A thing so affable..._ "Who could love you?" _Who could not?_ "Who would love you?" _I would._ "I hate you." _I love you._ "I'll give you a chance to run before I shoot." _Please don't make me shoot._

He didn't run. He didn't. He stayed where he as, immobile and still in a shock state. Her premonitions were true. He was in love with her too.

_Don't love me. Please don't. Run away from me. RUN AWAY DAMMIT!_ Her thoughts, like before, couldn't reach him. He stayed, and he even dared to step forward after he got out of stun.

"Are you trying to commit suicide, Don?" She couldn't keep her voice steady. She couldn't hide the tears. And like every thing else she couldn't do, she couldn't pull the trigger and kill him. She didn't want him to die. That was the reason why she didn't want him loving her either.

He stepped closer. He kept forward until he got Brandi backed up against the wall. He took gun, and moved it so that it was aimed at his head. His face was soft, with that kindness that she loved. Everything about his twisted existence she loved.

"Shoot me then."

She shook uncontrollably at those words, so daring and threatening. Her finger was on the trigger, ready to pull at any given time. She lowered the gun and her head, and hoped that he would run away now before someone else came and saw her being weak.

For the second time in her life, she cried. This time, her crying sobs were loud and her entire body shook like the night was freezing her. She told herself not to cry and get the mission over with. But no matter what her mind said, her heart told her otherwise.

She felt an arm wrap around her quivering form. She felt something warm against her, cuddling her tightly. As if to hold onto reality, Brandi held onto him as tightly as he was holding her. She couldn't let him go now. She wouldn't let him go now.

"Do you know how I felt when I realized you were gone?" His voice soothed her.

She tried to calm her shaking voice. "Frightened that I would return to the Foot and betray you."

"Close. I _was_ frightened. But I wasn't frightened that you would betray me. I was frightened that you might be hurt." He paused, and tensed. "That was when I realized that I love you."

Those words were both what Brandi wanted to hear, and didn't want to hear.

"Do you love me too?" His voice was soft, as if he was afraid she had heard him.

She couldn't lie anymore. She nodded ran her hand over his hard shell, feeling its smooth texture. It comforted her. "I love you too."

"Then stay with me."

"I can't."

"I'll protect you. I promise I won't let the Foot hurt you again."

She didn't reply.

"I don't want to lose you again."

Then she whispered into his small ear, "I'm sorry."

_**To protect that treasure that you love so much, you'll have to risk everything when its in danger. Not many would do that.**_

She suddenly spun both of them around. Don was caught off guard, and he didn't understand what she had just said. Then it was made clear. Behind her was a surprised Foot ninja. In her hand was a gun, which she dropped and ran away.

Don looked below him, and saw the distant look in Brandi's eyes. He panicked.

She was smiling sweetly at him. But she didn't say a word.

He stood up and started running with her in his arms. He couldn't lose her like this, not after he just told her that he loved her. He couldn't let the story end this way. He had to save her. He had to save her. Save her and continue loving her to continue living his twisted existence.

He ran and ran and hoped he was running in the right direction. He ran and ran and hoped she was still breathing.

_**Luck is like a disease. It points a dizzy finger at that lucky person. That lucky person had better count his blessings.**_

"Get a stretcher!"

"Get me that blood!"

"Hurry!"

The doctors and nurses were rushing and rushing, with sweat beats going down their foreheads. They wiped the beads of sweat off easily, and continued with their work. The doctor worked hurriedly but gingerly on the girl's wounds.

After about an hour, the operation was finished.

"She'll live. The wound wasn't quite as fatal as we suspected. But if that bullet had hit her just a little more to the left, they would've blasted one of her lungs," the doctor said to one of the nurses as if she were the patient's relative. He turned to another nurse. "So, have you got her records?"

"No, doctor. We were unable to find them in the database or any other database."

The doctor sighed. "I saved a life and don't even get paid for it."

"Don't feel bad Dr. Washington," the first nurse said. She was smiling brightly at the crestfallen doctor.

The doctor and nurses talked some more as they walked down the hallway and into the elevator.

They had no clue that they had helped save two souls that night.

_**To save a life without thinking of your own is brave. To think of your own before another's is cowardly.**_

"Where've you been Don? We could've used you at that fight back there," Raph complained. He winced at the sudden pain in his knee. He muttered something about being beat by a girl.

"Sorry. I was..." The rest was unsaid, an unprepared lie. "Well...umm...you see..."

"Yeah. Go on," Raph said, trying to urge his brother to tell him the truth.

"He was with his little girlfriend," Mikey finished with a happy grin, happy that he managed to embarrass the turtle that was rarely embarrassed. He was sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels with his left hand because his right palm had a huge cut on it.

"Girlfriend?" Leo asked. He managed not to sustain any major injuries, only minor scratches. He turned to Don.

Don sighed, deciding that now was the time. It was better than never.

"You see..."

The turtle brothers were too busy listening to their brother's story (with a few unneeded interruptions by Mikey), that they didn't notice a rat smiling behind the door opened ajar. Whether it was a happy or mischievous smile, they would never know.

_**The truth has to come out sometime. It can never stay hidden long. So is their habit and nature.**_

"You should've left me to die," Brandi said angrily and sadly to the turtle in front of her.

Somehow, after she had escaped the white building called a hospital, she ran into the one person she didn't want to run into. Strange how life works, isn't it?

"If I had done that, I wouldn't know what to do with myself." His was calm and soft, so soothing.

"Live on without me." _Live happily ever after._

"That's just the-"

"Don't make this into a soap opera, Don." Her tone was no longer just angry; it was a warning.

"Listen, Brandi-"

"What I said that night, forget them. They were _lies_, Donatello. Lies."

"If you cried when you said them, then they must've been painful lies." _Meaning you're lying._

"They weren't really. I was adding tears for dramatic effect." Brandi smirked as evilly as she could at his face; trying to fight the tears. It seemed that nowadays she cried more than she smiled. She was becoming weak. She couldn't become weak now. Now of all times.

Why was she turning weak? To be honest, she had barely a clue herself.

Maybe it was the humanity in Don. The qualities that made him human. The qualities that made her admire him more than anyone else. Out of all animals and weird things you would think could act human, you would never think that a mutant would be that one. It made Brandi question herself.

Was she human? Or was she the mutant? The twisted, coldhearted mutant?

"Cry. It's okay." Don stepped a little closer to her. Brandi didn't move away, since she found that would be pointless. He would only corner her anyway.

She was the mutant. The twisted mutant. The twisted little mutant who was nothing but weak. At that moment, she hated herself so much...

So she did as Don said. She cried to let that hate out. She cried on his shoulder that felt warmer than any other man she could ever dream of. She cried and cried. He embraced her tightly as if to help her keep herself together, so that she didn't break in half.

"I still love you," he whispered.

"How? Why?" The tears were ceasing like the end of a storm.

"You make me feel human."

_**To be human is not merely to have a human shape or form. It is to have human thoughts and emotions, to feel always. That's what it means to be human.**_

"I love you, you know."

"I know that you know that I love you too."

"I know."

The two lovebirds were smiling at each other, giving the other warmth through touch and heart.

Raph groaned at the scene. "Hello? Injured turtle over here?" He had managed to get himself into another fight with another member of the G-F. He muttered something about being ignored and beaten up by a girl (again).

"Aw, leave them alone Raph. It's their month anniversary," Splinter said with a huge grin.

"It must be like one of your soap operas," Raph muttered silently, but Splinter still heard him.

"One day, I hope you will find your own happiness."

"One thing's for sure: my happiness ain't gonna be like Don's happiness."

The two lovers were oblivious to the other people in the room.

"I know that you know that I know that you know that I love you."

"Yes, I do."

"That's what you're supposed say for our wedding, Don!"

Which was in a month.

_**We, all creatures and everything, are all human in some way.**_

Hope you all liked it. Not my best work, but my first Donatello fic. "

Please R&R. Constructive criticism is allowed.


End file.
